When the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak visited America at the end of the 19th century, he was struck by the country’s native music, which found its way into his Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.”

The symphony’s second movement was later adapted into the popular song “Goin’ Home,” further showing how music of varied styles and cultures can become a communal wellspring of inspiration.

That spirit set the tone for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s season opening at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Friday, titled “Promise of the New World.”

Led by music director Jacques Lacombe, the program brought together jazz and gospel, classical and new sounds. Messages of unity ran throughout the concert, which included a reading of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in honor of its 50th anniversary.

Lacombe and the NJSO delivered an appealingly conceived program and a sure-footed performance. Also marking the change of season, James Roe, who acted as principal oboist last season, appeared this time as the orchestra’s president and CEO.

The concert began with Duke Ellington’s “Three Black Kings.” The musicians brought motoric drive to the opening “King of the Magi” movement, savored the balmy “King Solomon” section and laid into the gospel-inspired groove of the third movement, which was dedicated to Dr. King.

The smartest stroke of the concert was to include jazz pianist and Montclair resident Geri Allen, who composed “Stone and Streams,” a work for orchestra, chorus, piano and narrator commissioned as part of the orchestra’s New Jersey Roots Project.

The title came from King’s directives to “hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope” and to “let justice roll down like the waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” The work exhibited a correspondingly powerful, dynamic flow. The “jangling discords” King spoke of and the eventual harmony he affirmed vividly came through.

During the piece, Reverend Dr. M. William Howard Jr. – pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Newark – narrated King’s text. Allen’s intricate piano part began with gestures that felt Romantic but became her own distinct, wide-ranging fusion.

Also inspired by the song “O freedom,” the work featured Afro Blue, Howard University’s jazz vocal ensemble, whose words of liberation took on different casts as the tone of the spoken text shifted: it was a triumphant refrain, an anxious plea tense with sustained dissonance, a battle call with militant drumming.

Allen was also on hand as the soloist for Ellington’s “New World A-Comin,’” and sailed with grace and virtuosity through its descending melody.

The program could not have been complete without the Dvorak symphony from which it took its name. Refreshing the often-performed work, Afro Blue returned to sing spirituals – one of the composer’s inspirations – between movements. Of these, “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child” was particularly effective, with a rhythmic chant beneath the solo line creating a sense of urgency.

Lacombe drew out the symphony’s plaintive opening and segued deftly into an emphatically played first movement. A tender “Largo” featured supple playing and a flowing English horn solo by Andrew Adelson, followed by a tonally luminous series of harmonically fluctuating chords and an exquisite hushed ending. Bright, shimmering strings and forceful brass headed an ardent finale.